Factual Series

Roman Villa

Take six modern day builders, Vitruvius’s Roman villa manual (written in 25BC) and tools and materials known to the Romans. Stripped of modern technology, can our motley crew build a Roman Villa from scratch?

This unique experimental archaeology project tests the builders’ skills and dedication – and archaeologists’ theories about how the Romans built. The 6 modern builders hail from across Britain: larger than life characters and skilled in their own trades, they are foreman Jim, plumber Kevin, plasterer Tim, carpenter Fred, brick-layer Darren and labourer Ben.

Their challenge is to build a full size Roman villa at Wroxeter, Shropshire, which was once Britain’s fourth largest Roman town.